Your Memory Holds the Key to Your Future
Your memory holds the key to how you approach the future. We continually rely on information from the past to guide us in future decision making and problem solving. Understanding the link can help you understand your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about what lies ahead, learning about how and why your cognition works the way it does can help you take action in the present.
Memory affects visions of the future
Visions of the future stem from projections of the past. Researchers have found that remembering and imagining rely on many of the same cognitive and neural processes. This relationship has been illustrated in case studies where individuals who have serious deficiencies in remembering their past also have serious deficiencies in imagining their future. Remembering allows us to extract relevant information blocks from past experiences to build imagined possible novel scenarios. This can be beneficial but can also be a hindrance. Preparing for a job interview and recalling a previous successful interview experience can lead to imagining landing a job and instil confidence. On the other hand, preparing for a job interview and recalling an unsuccessful interview can lead to imagining failure and instil self-doubt.
Memory gives us an identity
Our memory also filters what information is accepted and remembered to provide us with a stable personal identity. What this means is that we accept information that is consistent with our beliefs and attitudes, and ignore information that is not. We are guided by our senses – by what we see, hear, smell, and touch, yet our personality, other similar experiences, motivation, emotion, and social factors contribute to shaping and restructuring our memory. This can lead to developing helpful or unhelpful schemas. Schemas are cognitive short cuts based on past recollections. They are simplified knowledge frameworks that help interpret new information as quickly as possible. Schemas teach people to expect a future that is like their past. Healthy schemas can be very helpful but maladaptive schemas perpetuate dysfunctional emotions, behaviours, and overall coping responses that are repeatedly activated by life circumstances and personal triggers. For example, if a person recalls experiences where they were constantly criticised and made to feel inadequate they may learn to expect that people will continue to view them as internally flawed. This can then lead to feelings of shame, beliefs of unworthiness, and withdrawal or avoidance of close relationships.
Memory is goal-oriented
Finally, our memory is goal directed. Our memory functions to maintain a record of progress to help us reach our evolving goals. It provides us with correspondence of facts and coherence of achieved subjective milestones. Our present goals influence what we remember and what we remember influences our present goals. This feedback loop can then limit the goals we set. Just as we are often better at remembering details from recent experiences (yesterday) compared to details from distant past experiences (last year), the same is true for visualising near future to distant future scenarios. This, in turn, may affect short term vs. long term goal processing. Short term goals that we easily visualise and that are relatable (I will go for a 30 minute walk at the park tomorrow afternoon) take precedence over long term goals that are vague and disconnected from our present self (I will be fit next year). A series of concrete detailed short-term goals keeps track of progress and builds consistency of achievements thereby instilling confidence and broadening future visions and outcomes.
Focusing on the present
While you can’t change your past, you can change what you choose to take from it to ultimately construct a better vision and approach to the future. An important part of therapy is understanding how past experiences and associated schemas trigger emotional and behavioural sequencing. Treatment entails identifying and changing unhelpful mindsets and behaviours. Using techniques such as cognitive restructuring, skills training, and activity scheduling, the focus is on empowering and strengthening helpful interpretations and future problem solving strategies. By understanding how projections from your past influence your future you decide which memories, imaginings, and approaches are helpful and which are detrimental. Only then can you embrace your present self to take action in unlocking the door to a brighter future.